On his
father's donation
claim, eight miles southeast of Albany, Smith Cox was born February 2,
1859,
and was there reared to a practical agricultural life. Although his
family
was comparatively poor, and the children were obliged to work hard, he
managed
to secure a fair education in the district school, which he attended at
irregular
intervals, and mostly during the winter season. In 1888, at the age of
twenty-nine,
he left the home farm and moved upon his present claim, which consists
of
one hundred and sixty acres, all but twenty of which are under
cultivation.
Seventy acres of this land is in the bottoms and is unusually fertile,
well
adapted to wheat and general grain-raising, of which the owner makes a
specialty.
Mr. Cox owns one hundred and sixty acres of timber land in Douglas
county.

Two years
after starting
out to farm on his own responsibility, Mr. Cox tired of keeping
bachelor
quarters, and married, March 5, 1890, Annie
Archibald,
a native daughter of Linn county, who is the mother of two interesting
children,
Roya and Edna.
Mr. Cox is a Democrat in political affiliation, and though not an
office
seeker, has served both as school director and road supervisor.
Fraternally
he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. Thrifty, and with
great
capacity for industry, Mr. Cox well deserves the reputation of being
one
of the worthy and successful farmers of Linn county.